peer who lived in the North of England,
who had only recently been married for the second time, had been killed
in a motor smash together with his eldest son. The chauffeur had escaped
with a fractured thigh. The peer's name was Lord Talgarth.
CHAPTER VII
(I)
On the morning of the twenty-fourth a curious little incident
happened--I dug the facts out of the police news--in a small
public-house on the outskirts of South London. Obviously it is no more
than the sheerest coincidence. Four men were drinking a friendly glass
of beer together on their way back to work from breakfast. Their
ecclesiastical zeal seems to have been peculiarly strong, for they
distinctly stated that they were celebrating Christmas on that date, and
I deduce from that statement that beer-drinking was comparatively
infrequent with them.
However, as they were about to part, there entered to them a fifth,
travel-stained and tired, who sat down and demanded some stronger form
of stimulant. The new-comer was known to these four, for his name was
given, and his domicile was mentioned as Hackney Wick. He was a small
man, very active and very silent and rather pale; and he seems to have
had something of a mysterious reputation even among his friends and to
be considered a dangerous man to cross.
He made no mystery, however, as to where he had come from, nor whither
he was going. He had come from Kent, he said, and humorously added that
he had been hop-picking, and was going to join his wife and the family
circle for the festival of Christmas. He remarked that his wife had
written to him to say she had lodgers.
The four men naturally stayed a little to hear all this news and to
celebrate Christmas once more, but they presently were forced to tear
themselves away. It was as the first man was leaving (his foreman
appears to have been of a tyrannical disposition) that the little
incident happened.
"Why," he said, "Bill" (three out of the five companions seemed to have
been usually called "Bill"), "Bill, your boots are in a mess."
The Bill in question made caustic remarks. He observed that it would be
remarkable if they were not in such weather. But the other persisted
that this was not mud, and a general inspection was made. This resulted
in the opinion of the majority being formed that Bill had trodden in
some blood. Bill himself was one of the majority, though he attempted in
vain to think of any explanation. Two men, however, decla
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